CHICAGO -- BP PLC said on Thursday that it would delay the expansion of E85 fuel at its U.S. gas stations until Underwriters Laboratories (UL) certified an E85 dispensing system, according to The New York Times.
BP is tracking this issue very closely, Valerie Corr, a company spokesperson, told the newspaper.
Private product-safety testing group UL and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are holding two days of hearings this week at UL's Northbrook, Ill., headquarters, inviting oil companies, automakers and researchers to help [image-nocss] develop standards for E85 equipment.
UL, which certifies the safety of everything from toasters to TVs, on October 5 temporarily withdrew authorization for the U.L.-approved label on parts used in E85 dispensers. (Click here to view UL announcement. http://www.ul.com/gasandoil/ethanol.html) Those dispensers were modified from regular gasoline dispensers and were certified only for a maximum of 15% ethanol concentration; UL said it had never certified any E85-specific pumps.
The reversal has heightened concerns among some oil companies about the safety of E85 pumps on the market and threatens to slow the proliferation of the fuel, which automakers, President Bush and Midwest lawmakers are pushing as a homegrown alternative to gasoline.
Ethanol is primarily used as a 10% additive in gasoline, but in higher concentrations like E85 it can corrode some types of metal and even make some plastics brittle over time, said the report.
UL's decision comes after about a decade of E85 sales without any known safety problems, the report added, but the decision means that the pumps currently dispensing E85 do not meet some state and local fire codes that require certification from UL or another independent tester.
The standards review could take six months to two years, John Drengenberg, UL's consumer affairs manager, told the newspaper. He said that the group would immediately begin testing E85 dispensers once a new standard was in place. We are moving as quickly as possible to get these technically correct standards in place, he added.
E85 is offered in more than 1,000 stations nationwide, but mostly in the Midwest. Some states, including Iowa and Minnesota, are offering financial incentives so that retailers will install the pumps, and federal money is also available. But the expanded use of the fuel has been slow, the report said.
Wal-Mart Stores, which announced in May that it was considering offering E85 at nearly 400 Sam's Club and Wal-Mart stores nationwide, has yet to say which stores, if any, will offer the fuel. We are still in the consideration phase on E85, said Kevin Gardner, a Wal-Mart spokesperson, told the Times. The certification issue is one more thing to consider, he told the paper.
In Iowa, the largest corn-growing state, plans to triple the number of E85 pumps over the next two years are moving ahead, Lucy Norton, managing director for the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, told the paper. A state law does not require UL-approved dispensers until July 1, 2009, and the state fire marshal has said the certification issue will not have any immediate effect on the dispensing of E85 in the state, she said.
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